idea and a real lofty goal for the future,” he says.
APR has also built new campgrounds and a hut
system on its properties, donated beef and bison
meat to local Native American communities and
food banks, sponsored rodeo athletes, donated
buffalo-hunting opportunities for local fund-rais-
ers, and organized a “Living With Wildlife” con-
ference (sponsored by the National Geographic
Society) for ranching neighbors concerned about
the arrival of more predators on the prairies. The
group also has purchased a long-empty depart-
ment store in nearby Lewistown as a new home
for a planned National Discovery Center. There
are, indeed, people in the town who welcome
APR’s economic impact and support the reserve.
“We need to have a voice for the salamander, the
plover, the buffalo,” says Lewistown City Commis-
sioner Clint Loomis, an artist and retired teacher.made some adjustments. “The end goal is still a
5,000-square-mile wildlife reserve,” says Alison
Fox, who took over as APR’s CEO in 2018. “But
how we’re going to get there, we’re really open
to new and innovative ideas.”
One of those ideas is APR’s Wild Sky pro-
gram, which pays ranchers to adopt habitat- and
predator-friendly practices, such as installing
wildlife-friendly fences and not removing prairie
dog colonies, in order to create “soft boundaries”
that allow wildlife to move safely back to their
historic habitat. Since 2014, the Wild Sky pro-
gram has paid more than $230,000 in incentives
to a handful of local ranchers, including Lance
Johnson, whose cattle also graze on one of APR’s
properties. A few neighbors have hassled him
for working with the conservation group, but
he appreciates the help. “I think they have an
Locals like to gather
at Pip’s Diner in Saco,
a town in Phillips County
where APR bought
its first property in
- The county has
lost more than half its
population since the
height of the home-
stead boom a century
ago. APR’s neighbors
fear that the reserve’s
practice of buying up
working ranches will
accelerate the region’s
demographic decline.
82 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC